Comme des Garçons Series 2 Red: Sequoia

As a lover of far too many woody scents, I am not only the the self-declared mayor of my perfume collection, known as Wardrobe City, but I am also the proprietor of the virtual village eyesore known as Red’s Lumberyard.  Thus, CdG Series 2 Red: Sequoia, is one of those scents that I probably should have tried sooner.  It is supposed to evoke, if not mimic, the scent of California redwoods, e.g., its namesake, Sequoia sempervirens.  It seems to do this rather well.

To say those wonderful words, that make the friends of old-growth forests faint on the couch, "Let's git 'er in the mill, boys!"

Sorry!  Just kidding! ;-)

Sequoia opens up with some momentary citrus, lifting what smells like a fairly unique redwood scent.  It is something like an average of cedar and pine, but milder and more like a hardwood aroma.   There is a brief flurry of dirty and animalic notes as the fragrance settles down, which it does very quickly.  After this, it seems rather linear to me.

The redwood heart has a certain dryness to it, which is probably from a touch of incense, but it is layered with earthy, mossy and “wet” notes, which – overall - give it a very authentic, natural feel.  The heart stays woody for a long time, taking the wood fully into the base, at which time soft musks replace wetness, and give a gentle and - you guessed it - woody drydown.

Longevity is good, but projection is only average.  It wears close, and generates minimal sillage.  Overall, it’s a nice skin scent.

Artistically, I feel that it accomplishes what it sets out to do, yet not in a clumsy or obvious way.  It's the tree, proud in a quiet way - reflected in a quietly majestic scent.  There is a certain complexity that reflects the fact that the tree is more than a simple wood - it's an ecosystem in itself.  (*nature lover's sigh*)   There's a reason that Bertrand Duchaufour is the nose behind every fragrance on the market.  Scratch that - I just learned that he did not do Chanel no. 5 or Jicky.  Sorry - my bad.

Don’t let the “natural” part deter you, o lovers of real, old-fashioned fragrance – this is perfectly wearable as a perfume, in some ways like Timbuktu (*snicker*).  However, if you want to “go big” on the perfumey aspects, then this one is not for you.  In fact, for a nice and similar woody scent that really steps out on the red carpet, I prefer Lubin’s Itasca, which has a big, “red”, woody smell, but which is also quite fragrant in a classically feminine way.

My final call is that Sequoia is a non-essential sniff unless you’re a wood enthusiast, in which case you need to sniff at least once.  However, if you’re someone who loves “natural-smelling” fragrances, and are willing to compromise on the use of at least some synthetic aroma chemicals to accomplish this, then by all means give this a test drive.  You may be pleasantly surprised that a designer like Comme des Garçons, with their own dedicated “synthetics” series, would create something this natural-smelling.

PS – My objectivity on this juice was severely tested by my admiration for Cherokee geek Sequoyah, who I consider one of America’s first code/language evangelists, and who is the grand-namesake of this fragrance.  Do check out his story on Wikipedia.  His foresight and persistence is very reminiscent of some of Silicon Valley’s finest geek heroes!